Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey
- Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey
-
▪ British geologist
born Feb. 19, 1792, Tarradale, Ross-shire, Scot.
died Oct. 22, 1871, London, Eng.
geologist who first established the geologic sequence of Early Paleozoic strata (408 to 540 million years old).
Murchison joined the Geological Society of London in 1825 and in the following five years explored Scotland, France, and the Alps and collaborated alternately with the British geologists Adam Sedgwick (
Sedgwick, Adam) and Charles Lyell.
In 1831 he was elected president of the Geological Society, after serving as secretary for five years. In that same year he began his studies of the Early Paleozoic rocks in South Wales. His findings were embodied in the monumental work The Silurian System (1839). Following the establishment of the Silurian System, Murchison and Sedgwick founded the Devonian System, based on their research of the geology of southwestern England and the Rhineland. Murchison then went on an expedition to Russia and wrote, with others, The Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains (1845). In 1841 he proposed the establishment of the Permian System (strata 245 to 286 million years old), based upon his Russian explorations.
Knighted in 1846, Murchison was appointed director general of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and director of the Royal School of Mines and the Museum of Practical Geology, London, in 1855. He prepared successive editions of his work
Siluria (1854; 5th ed. 1872), which presented the main features of the original
Silurian System together with information on new findings. In addition, he fought unsuccessfully against the splitting of his original Silurian System into three parts: the
Cambrian Period (540 to 505 million years ago), the
Ordovician Period (505 to 438 million years ago), and the
Silurian Period (438 to 408 million years ago).
In 1871 he founded a chair of geology and mineralogy at the University of Edinburgh, and in his will he provided for the establishment of the Murchison Medal and Geological Fund to be awarded annually by the Geological Society.
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Universalium.
2010.
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MURCHISON, SIR RODERICK IMPEY — geologist, born in Ross shire; entered the army and served in the Peninsular War, but retiring in 1816 gave himself to science; he explored many parts of Europe, predicted the discovery of gold in Australia, was President of the British… … The Nuttall Encyclopaedia
Roderick Impey Murchison — Roderick Murchison. Roderick Impey Murchison (* 19. Februar 1792 in Tarradale, Ross and Cromarty, Schottland; † 22. Oktober 1871 in London) war ein schottischer Geologe und Paläontologe. Auf verschiedenen Reisen im Alpengebiet stellte er… … Deutsch Wikipedia
Roderick Murchison — Sir Roderick Murchison Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet KCB DCL FRS FRSE FLS PRGS PBA MRIA (22 February 1792[1] – 22 October 1871) was a Scottish geologist who first described and investigated the Silurian system … Wikipedia
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Murchison [2] — Murchison (spr. mörkĭs n), Sir Roderick Impey, Geolog und Geograph, geb. 19. Febr. 1792 zu Tarradale (Roß), vermutete 1844 das Vorkommen von Gold in Australien, 1855 Generaldirektor der geolog. Aufnahmen der Brit. Inseln, gest. 22. Okt. 1871 zu… … Kleines Konversations-Lexikon
